Saturday, November 28, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, filled with family and friends!   We had a great one and we celebrated over at my Mom's like we always do.  Everything was perfect as usual.

Thanksgiving is always relaxing for us because it's not that many people, and when there is not that many people, that means, more leftovers!!!

First off, I want to say what I'm thankful for, my hubby and the girls, they mean the world to me, my family, my health, and the health of my family, my home.  I'm thankful that Tim and I both have jobs that provide well for our family.  I'm thankful that my Mom's cutco knife didn't slice my finger all the way off.  I'm thankful for the people that keep coming back to purchase my sweets.  I'm thankful for my Grandma's gravy.  I'm thankful for Polly's who provided our pies when at the last minute we decided we were too tired to bake.  I'm thankful for all of the things that God has blessed me and my family with.  We are truly blessed and I'm so thankful.

My Mom set a gorgeous table, as always...







We had amazing yummy food. The usual. Turkey, gravy, butter, stuffing, sausage stuffing, butter, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, butter, corn, broccoli and cheese, green beans, cranberry sauce, rolls, did I mention butter?  And I'm sure I'm forgetting something, maybe butter.


The girls were pretty good and enjoyed spending the day with these two.


Here is Sean and Gi Gi making the gravy and cheese sauce.  Mmmm, I'm reliving it.


We actually got a pretty good family pic.  These are so hard to get.


My Mom always uses the place cards that my Papa made for her years ago.  We make sure he eats dinner with us every year.


After dinner, Riley watched Lady and the Tramp while Madison ran around like a crazy person.  I captured a cute moment of the girls with Pop Pop watching the movie.




And of course, just a cute picture of Riley!


After Riley watched her movie, her and Madi went down to sleep at my Mom's while we watched Transformers 2.  It was the perfect Thanksgiving.  Thanks Mom for always having such a wonderful dinner for us.  Love you!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Monday, November 23, 2009

Sick of...

I'm so sick of people only out for themselves.  Selfish people, people who don't care what they say or do to you, as long as they get ahead, or they feel better about themselves.  Basically, I'm sick of people right now.  I just had a bad night.  I shouldn't be blogging this, but, it's how I feel. 

I'm sick of snobby remarks.

I'm sick of rude people. 

I'm sick of doing something nice for someone and not even getting a thank you.

Rudeness.  I've never gotten a kick out of straight up being rude to someone.  If I ever was rude, it was, unintentional.  I'd never go out of my way to make somebody feel bad, ever.

I'm honest, I'm giving, I care, my heart is good.  I try to see the good in everyone.  I try to give of myself any time that I can, my family can second that, all of that.

I'd like to move somewhere other than Southern California.  It's like we breed rudeness here.  I don't want my girls growing up thinking that they are going to get whatever they want.  I want them to do chores, I want them to work hard at school, I want them to work hard at sports.  I want them to win, I want them to lose.  I want them to know what it feels like to not get there way.  I want them to know right from wrong.  I want to raise them.

I'm so sick of all these self righteous people I could scream.  GET OVER YOUR SELF.  You are not the only person in the world.

Okay, I feel better.

It's the holidays people, if you can't be nice now, when can you be nice?  I'm telling Santa on you.

And he's not going to be happy.


(BTW, this post is not directed at anyone just all people that are rude.  If you feel threatened by this post, then maybe you have some thinking to do, maybe we all have some thinking to do.  Nobody is perfect, but at least we can try to be nice to one another.)

Saturday, November 21, 2009

And it Begins...

For many of you, this may have already started, and for those of you that I hate right now, this for you may already be complete, and for those of you that may be in denial, this is not going to go away...


CHRISTMAS SHOPPING

I have my lists, and ideas, and all that jazz.

I think I'm going to start tomorrow.  I just got finished emailing my hubby's lists to those that are in need of it.  I'm starting tomorrow.  I'm finishing tomorrow.  Don't laugh.  I will finish on Sunday.  I have to.  There is no other time for me to do it.  So this weekend, I'll be done.  I even have my wrapping paper and ribbon purchased and ready for me to bring home all of my wonderful gifts to start wrapping.

You know, I really don't believe myself, I won't finish on Sunday.  I have some gifts that will take some time to prepare.  I will be wrapping last minute items on Christmas Eve.

But, the good news is, our family is cutting down this year.  All of us.  We did it last year, and we are doing the same this year.  It feels good to not spend all of December trying to find the perfect gifts for everyone.  Last year we were more focused on what Christmas is all about, then on how many presents we got or gave.  It was so relaxing and just plain awesome. 

I realize that I'm posting about Christmas before Thanksgiving is even here, but, I'd like to be done with shopping before Thanksgiving, because Thanksgiving is where the holidays begin.  How better to start the holiday season off with saying what you are thankful for.  My list goes on, and on, and on.  I am truly blessed, but I'll save that post for Thanksgiving.

I guess, for me, shopping early means more time for memories and traditions with my family.  I don't want to be gone all of December shopping for other people, when I could be at home spending time with my girls and showing them the magic of the holidays.  It's a special time and the Reason for the season is more important than the gifts that you can buy.  I want my girls to know that Christmas is much more than Santa, that's just an added bonus!!  So with that...

Happy shopping everyone!!!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

A Little Imagination

My Riley girl is changing every single day.  Every day she is doing something new or is interested in something different.  I've been waiting for this.  She finally will let me teach her a thing or two without a fight, is showing a lot of interest in learning, and is developing quite an imagination.

Three days ago, Riley ate lunch with Dora. 

Riley eats her lunch up at the island and always wants Madi to sit next to her in the high chair.  So, usually, on a normal day, it's just the three of us eating lunch together.  Well, on Monday, we had a visitor.  Dora the Explorer enjoyed one chip and a glass of Sprite.  Riley picked out Dora's lunch, and made sure that I scooted Dora's chair in so that she could reach her chip and sprite.  Dora sat vacantly in the bar stool next to Riley and they enjoyed some good conversation, it appeared to be all one sided, but in the land of make believe, I'm sure Dora had a lot to say too.  After a little visiting with Dora, Diego and boots showed up but quickly ran upstairs.  Conveniently, this happened as Riley was finishing her last bite of lunch and she asked me if her and Dora could go find Diego and Boots.  I quickly washed her hands and we ran upstairs to find them.  First, we Riley saw them half way up the stairs, then they must have sprinted because she looked over her shoulder and informed me that they were all the way upstairs, she even pointed to them.  Then Diego and Boots ran to Riley's room, Madi's room, and ended up in Mommy's room on her bed.  A few minutes later, I was getting Riley ready for nap time and she informed me that Dora, Diego, and Boots all went to the park and were no longer here.

Tuesday, we played with make believe, see through Elmo.

Wednesday, Riley pretended to be a cat half the day, and a puppy the other half.

Can't wait to see what happens today...

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Confession

Okay, this has gone on long enough.

I'm finally ready to confess. 

I, Kristi Rush, have been taking advantage of the time change. 

It started November 1st, and it still has not stopped.  I think I might have a problem.  It gets dark, my girls go to bed.  Sometimes if they go down for a late nap, around 3:00 pm, they sleep on through till the morning.  What time do they wake up you ask?  Well, no matter what, Riley wakes up with the sun, except for last Sunday, that was a fluke.  Madison, sleeps till 8:30 am no matter what.

Am I bad Mom for doing this?  Am I bad Mom for putting my kids down so early?  I've tried to wait longer to put them down, but it doesn't work.  If Riley goes to bed later, she still wakes up with the sun.  If Madison goes to bed later, she still wakes up at 8:30.  I put them to bed tonight at 4:45, they are still sleeping and will continue to sleep until the morning. 

Is it bad that I am enjoying my alone time at night?  Are there any other Mom's out there that are doing this same exact thing?  Or am I the only one?  Am I alone in this?

I don't care if I'm all alone in this.  It feels right.  It feels so right.  I've been waiting for kids that sleep and now I finally have it.  So, I am, I am going to take advantage of these dark days.  You can judge me, or you can join me.

This is my confession.

Monday, November 16, 2009

A Fun Weekend

We had a good weekend over here in the Rush house.  Friday, is kind of when my weekend started.  My awesome Dad has started to give me Fridays off if I need them to complete my orders.  This started a few weeks ago and I have to say, I am much more sane and useful since he has let me do this.  I swear, I have the best set up ever and am so grateful for it.  Who do you know that has to work full time gets to do it at home with their babies?  Not many, I'm so lucky to have such awesome parents, and, now, I have Fridays off to try to get my business really going!!  Thanks Mom and Dad!!  So, my Mom came over and helped me ALL day Friday.  Another reason I have such great parents, they are very giving!  We actually had a really fun day considering I was sick as a dog, coughing, sore throat, congestion, all that wonderful stuff, but I can't exactly call people and say, sorry, can't get your cake done for tomorrow for your birthday party.  How sad would they be!!!  So, we made the best of it, ordered in some Macaroni Grill for dinner, and Mom stayed until midnight helping me.  She's great.  Here are a few pictures of the orders that I had.


This cake I made for my best friends Mom.  She just turned 50 and they wanted an old lady cake.  Rhonda is soooo not old lady, she's the hottest 50 year old I've ever seen.  They requested black, the rest of the color scheme was up to me.  So, I made it for a hot 50 year old.  Old lady with the lace, picture, and hot flash decor, cool 50 with the hot pink and overall look.  Tim and I were going to go to the party, but he got off of work way too late.  Sorry Debbie, I was looking forward to talking with you.  We'll chat some other way about your layout, I really want to help you with it, the downside to the big 3 column is I think older computers (at least this is what I read) can't see the right side column.  I can see them just fine and so can my Mom on all of her computers.  If anyone knows any info on this, I'll take it!

Saturday, I delivered a cake early in the morning and then went out for lunch and shopping, we had a great time.  I realized as I was out having fun, that I should be out getting my Christmas shopping done.  I really would like to be done by December 1st so that I can just enjoy the holidays, but that's always my goal.  We'll see how that goes.  Saturday night, Tim and I went out on a date night!  I was so excited.  We've had so much going on and my parents (the babysitters) have had a lot going on that Tim and I haven't been out on a date in six months.  How sad is that?  Well we had a really good time, and it was really good for us.  Thanks again Mom, you're a giver.

Sunday, this is where ALL the pictures come in.  Tim was supposed to go into work but he decided to just go in early this morning.  We had such an awesome day.  We haven't had a day like this in so long.  Just a relaxing, do what you want to do type of day.  So, I'll walk you through it.

We started our day off great, with all of us waking up at 8:30, hello, beautiful. We had breakfast and watched Cinderella with Riley while Madison puttered around the downstairs. Tim ran in the morning for milk and Starbucks so I had a Chai treat while watching Cinderella. Yummy!! Then, Tim's football team was playing (the Bengals), so he watched that while Madi slept, and Riley and I made hand sugar cookies. She saw it on Noggin, and I asked her if she'd like to make them, and of course everyday since then, she has been asking to make hand cookies. So, Sunday was perfect. The directions were, to trace your hands for your patterns, and then make turkeys. Well, after doing two of Riley's hands, I decided to let Riley just do it with my hand cookie cutter. She loved it. She helped me roll out the dough, cut the cookies, make the icing, and color the icing, she picked the colors. Then she decorated, by that time, I scratched the whole turkey idea, she really didn't care.












When Riley and I were finished with our cookies, Madi woke up and I got everyone ready for the park while Tim watched the rest of his game.  Bengals won, big game, Tim, happy.  So, we headed over for some chicken stars to bring to the park.  Riley had a blast.

After the park, we let the girls enjoy a little ice cream.

Then we all went home and took the Harley out for a spin.
While some of us blew bubbles.

We finished up our evening with dinner and a bath.

I think this Sunday was so much fun because we spent it as a family.  I'm so quick to include everyone in what we are doing that I forget how we need time as just the four of us every once in a while.  We all really enjoyed our day.  I hope you had fun looking at the pictures.  I know I haven't posted pics of the girls in a while and I know Nana and Grand Dad are missing them.  So enjoy!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

My Little Re-Decorator


I'm starting to feel older. You want to know why? It's not because I'm married and have kids. It's because of something that I can remember.

I can remember when my brother was about 3 years old, and would redecorate EVERYTHING. Our house, my Grandmas' houses, MY crayon box. Really quick, let me tell you about my crayon box, it was organized by color, you'd open up the top, and it looked like a rainbow. I kept it perfect, Sean didn't like it that way, he rearranged them one time, oh it gets on my nerves just thinking about that day.

But here's the thing, I can remember when my brother did this redecorating, and now, now, my daughter is doing the same thing. With everything. That's a twenty year old memory, that I'm reliving with my daughter. It's crazy! So, I don't feel old, just older. It's weird when your kids start doing the things that you did when you were there age, it brings back memories. So I guess this means that I am not a kid anymore.

These pumpkins and pine cones I had placed in the leaves, Riley takes them out and lines them up by pine cones and pumpkins. She also had the two balloon bouquets from the party one on either side of her line up.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Curious....

Hello all fellow bloggers...

I'm curious.  Tonight, I've toyed around with making my own background.  Since I've gone big, like a lot of you other bloggers, I've realized that it's time I learn how to make my own backgrounds.  I've figured out how to do it, but when it comes to putting it on my blog, it is not big enough.  In order to get it big enough, I have to upgrade with an online site, like photobucket, to get my background the size that it needs to be.  My questions to you are, has anyone;

  1. Purchased the upgrade to find out that it actually works, or...
  2. Found another way to make it work that does not cost any money???
I really want to start making my own backgrounds and any info that you can give me would totally help.  Thanks guys!!!

A Link to a Better Post

My Mother's Dancing With the Stars party at my house was so much fun.  I think all the lovely ladies that could join us for a wonderful night had a really good time, considering what we put them through.  I've had my Mom post about it so check out her blog to see all the fun!

A few more thoughts,




I think I'm going to leave our red carpet from our party out indefinitely.  When I go to get my mail, I feel like royalty, sometimes I wave to passing cars from my red carpet, I think I might eat my lunch on my red carpet later today, then I might put on one of my old winter formal or prom dresses from high school tonight and walk it.  We'll see.

The last thought, what does a husband do when his wife has crazy women over at the house for a Dancing party, and he has strict orders to lock himself in our bedroom?  Why, he takes a bath of course.  Let me tell you how funny I thought that was, Tim does not take baths, well, alone anyway, wink, wink (TMI??  So sorry).  So when I went up to tell him all the crazies had left the building and I saw his bath, I really had to hold in my laughter.  He was renewed and refreshed, and had rearranged our room so that he could sit in our chair and watch ESPN.  When I asked if I could take a picture of his bath, he quickly let the water out, and told me no, because I'd blog it.  Well, picture or no picture, he was right.

The last, last thought, thank you to all the ladies who joined us in our fun night.  I hope we can do it again!!

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Tomorrow Night!!!!

I'm taking a break from getting ready for our Dancing party tomorrow night and thought I'd blog about it!!  My Mom and I are totally looking forward to getting together with all of you other crazy Dancing With the Stars fans.  For those of you that are coming, look for an email tomorrow morning with directions, if you need them, and for a list of the goodies that everyone is bringing.  We will see all of you at 7:30 pm but won't be starting the show until 8:30, we need time to eat, be merry, and drink our makstini's.  There is still time to RSVP if you have not already, the more, the merrier we always say!!!  Once again, I leave you with a delicious picture of this:


And, let's not forget this...

Thursday, November 5, 2009

A Blogger Tip

For those of you that are unaware, as was I until last night, blogger now has a new posting editor.  Go to Settings, Basic, Select post editor, and click updated editor.  The new options are pretty cool.  My favorite being you can now upload extra large pics instead of large.  You might have to change your margins a bit if you have a three column to fit these big boys, but well worth it.

The only downside is it no longer has a spell check, but what you can do is download a spell check to your computer that you can use with any internet program.  I used iespell.  Works like a charm. 

Just thought you might like the info.

A Little Riley Rose Update

My Big Girl.

I don't know if anyone remembers a little post called That's Mrs. Mean Mommy to You, but in that post, I explained the baby ways of Riley that I was dying to get rid of.  This post, I believe was back on July 6th.  It is now November.  Can you believe it?

I'm going to tell you all what has been happening since July 6th.  We started by clipping her paci, and all of her pacis.  Okay let me back up again.  I would lose Riley's pacifiers very often, I mean all the time, and then, Riley would come to me with handfuls of pacifiers when I would explain to her that I couldn't find her paci.  To this day, I still don't know where her hiding place was.  Well, anyway, we would clip a paci, and then all of a sudden this pacifier from 4 months ago would pop up in her mouth.  Then, we would cut it.  So this went on for quite some time.  Before we had the pacifier issue solved, Mommy decided to potty train.  Because, if you look back at that post back in July, Mommy was done with all baby related items that had to do with Riley.  I was done.  So, the potty thing started to go okay, so we decided to let the paci thing slide.  She only had it for bedtime so I didn't see a big problem with it.  On a side note, there was a point when all of her paci's where cut, and she'd sleep with them all in her hands.  She'd ask for each individual one by color or theme, and she'd hold all of them in her wee little hands and fall asleep.  None in her mouth, but all in her hands.  I wish I had gotten a picture.  It always made me crack up.

So, she's pretty much potty trained now, except for bedtime.  I just got that idea in her head yesterday so I'll let you know how it goes.  She does not have any accidents (I say that, and today she'll poop her pants, watch.)  She has this little step stool that I find all over the house.  When she wakes up in the morning, she takes it to the bathroom, where I find a pull up on the floor and pee pee in the potty, and a long stream of toilet paper that has not been ripped from the roll, but has definitely been used, and one end is in the potty.  She takes it downstairs when I'm doing dishes to help me clean counters.  It's everywhere.  Yesterday, she used it to put away her medicine, the same way Mommy puts it away.  Anyway, I'm totally off subject, what were we talking about?

Oh yes, pacifiers.  Well, on Sunday, the pacifier fairy came to our house.  Sunday morning, I asked Riley if she wanted to give her pacifier to the paci fairy.  She took it out of her mouth and said, "Here, take it."  I thought, sweet, that was easy.  I told her the paci fairy needed all the paci's that big girls had, to give to babies, you know, I explained it all.  Well, she didn't have a nap on Sunday, so it was bedtime when we had to deal with this no paci thing again.  She asked for it, and we told her that she gave it to the fairy, she was upset.  I offered a broken paci, she refused it.  I told her that if she slept through the night without her paci, the paci fairy would put the movie Cinderella under her pillow.  She was still upset and I let her cry for about five minutes before I went back in.  It was more of a shout out for her paci then a cry.  So, I went back up, explained to her again what was happening, and once again offered her the broken paci.  She looked me straight in the eye, said, "I don't want that pacifier Mommy."  She then stopped crying, laid her head on the pillow, and went to sleep.  How easy was that?  If I had known that was the way it was going to go down, I probably would have done this back before July.

I realized that our kids hold on to baby stuff for as long as we let them.  I saw a picture of a five year old with a pacifier at a restaurant the other day, and said oh, heck no.  (I didn't say heck, I said the other one.)  Not gonna happen.  I thought it was going to be so hard, and I really had no plan to take it away on Sunday, but I figured, might as well, I hate the pacifier.  I also realize why Riley liked it so much.  Before I had her, every pacifier that I got at my baby shower went back to the store.  I didn't use one as a baby, mine didn't need one either.  Obviously, after she came out screaming, I decided to give it a try.

Well, since Sunday night, she has not even asked for her paci.  It's so nice to finally not have to worry about it anymore. 

Riley's To Do List:

1.  Potty training
2.  Get rid of paci
3.  Calculus.



Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Calling ALL Dancing With the Stars Fans...

Wanted:

Ladies who love to watch Maks/Dmitry/Edyta (you people know who you are) on DWTS.
Where: On Kristi's TV
When: Monday November 9 at 7:30 pm
Bring: An appetizer to share

All fun loving ladies welcome... Beverages will be served (perhaps a Maks Martini)
Please come for the fun.

I'm sending this out to all the ladies in blogland. If you have children, leave them with your husband. If you don't have children, or your children are grown, good for you, you have less to worry about. Please leave me a comment or email me at k_rush82@yahoo.com to RSVP or if you'd like further details!!

Until next Monday I leave you with this...





and for those of you who might be more into this...

 

Me

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I'm Kristi, the wife of one very lucky and handsome husband, and mother to two beautiful little girls. I'm honest and sarcastic, funny and easy going. I love to eat and love to hate that I love butter. And wine. And did I mention butter? I'm always learning new things, happy to lend a hand, and love my life. This is a blog of my family and the day to day crazy that we call Rush Hour. I hope while you are here that you enjoy yourself and come back often!

The Rush Family

The Rush Family

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